Hydroprocessing (which may also be referred to as hydrocracking, hydrotreating, hydroconverting, hydroconversion or hydrogenative cracking/processing/converting/conversion/treating/treatment) of heavy oils and/or oil residues is a known process that may be used to form useful materials from crude oil components that have high initial boiling points (i.e. typically greater than about 385° C. for atmospheric residue, greater than about 525° C. for vacuum residue and between about 350° C. and about 525° C. for vacuum gas oil). In order to make hydroprocessing conditions more economically viable, metal catalysts may be used to facilitate the hydroprocessing. See e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,770,764, 8,372,776 and US 20110017636. However, such metal catalysts are expensive and may be prone to deactivation. Alternatively, non-metallic (that is to say, non-metallised) carbonaceous materials such as lignite coke may be used as an additive instead of the metal catalysts. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,064,523. Such carbonaceous additives, however, are typically very inefficient at hydroprocessing larger hydrocarbon molecules, including molecules such as asphaltenes, which unfortunately leads to unconverted heavy oils and/or oil residues in the process, and incomplete hydroprocessing (including coke formation). To worsen matters, unprocessed asphaltenes (and coke) may also adhere to additive particles, thus preventing their further utility in the process.
There accordingly remains a need for a process for hydroprocessing heavy oils and oil residues such as vacuum gas oil, atmospheric residue and vacuum residue into substances having smaller molecules of greater utility that simultaneously offers the cost benefits of avoiding metal catalysts alongside improved process efficiency, especially when it comes to hydrocracking asphaltenes.